rning. He was urged to
use a soft feather-bed instead of his hard couch, while Yolande's own
physician and one Angelo Catto watched anxiously over him. The latter
claimed the credit of saving his life. Charles was not, however, fully
recovered when he resumed his activities and held a review on May 9th.
With all his efforts exerted in every quarter likely to yield results,
the whole number of troops was but twenty thousand men. Every onlooker
felt that the duke was now trying to accomplish something quite beyond
his resources.

"Illustrious prince [wrote the King of Hungary[18]], we cannot
sufficiently wonder that you should have been so gravely deceived
and that, after having once found that you were lured into loss
and disgrace, again you let yourself be snared in a labyrinth from
which you will either never escape, or escape only with damage and
shame.... Without risk to himself [your foe] has precipitated you
into an abyss and tied you where you are exposed to the loss of
your possessions and your life.... We exhort you to pause before
incurring heavier losses and greater dangers. If fortune smiles
upon you in your attack on that people, you will have the whole
empire against you. In the opposite event--which God avert--it
will be turned into a common tale how a mighty prince was overcome
by rustics whom there would have been no honour in conquering,
while to be conquered by them would be an eternal disgrace."

This plain-spoken epistle failed to reach its destination until after
the prophecy had been fulfilled. Its warning would probably have been
futile had Charles read it before he marched on towards Berne, on June
8th. On the road that he chose lay the town of Morat, which had made
ready for his approach. A few days to reduce it, and then on to Berne
was his plan. His force succeeded in holding the ground and cutting
off communication with Berne for three days. On the 14th, a messenger
made his way through from the beleaguered city to Berne, and all the
allies were then urged to do their best. The result was encouraging.
"There are three times as many as at Granson, but let no one be
dismayed, with God's help we will kill them all," wrote a leader of
Berne.

The encounter came on June 23d. The force was really a formidable one.
Rene of Lorraine was among the commanders on the side of the Swiss.
It was a tremendous fight, brief as it was savage; at two o'